Pathfinder: New Galaxy

Formian

Physical Appearance: Formians look like large chitin covered Kintari ants with an lower abdomen that sports four insect legs and an upper torso like abdomen that sports two arms and one head .

They have antennae upon their heads, which they use to help them sense the world around them; two black eyes, a humanoid mouth with two mandibles that accompany it, and chitin like armor that covers their bodies.

The chitinous armor is either red or black depending upon which nation they come from, the Red or the Black.

Formian civilization is diffrent than most, more like an insect hive than a humanoid nation. Each station in the Formian Hive has its own type of Formian, which can vary drastically in appearance from one rank to another.

History and Culture

Formian history is a long one. Millions of years ago the Formians had completely colonized their own home world of Gylion. As their population grew tensions began to rise between the different hives over territory and resources. This led to the War of the Queens. A period in Formian History that little is known about.

What little is known; is that during this war only two Queens managed to survive the conflict, the Black Queen Thyzser and the Red Queen Gusilna. The two queens ended the war with a peace treaty that enforced a mass evacuation of the planet. The Black Queen and a select few of her children would be loaded onto an asteroid moon, and flung into deep space where they would meet their eventual destiny, while the rest of her children were slaughtered wholesale.

Age of Exploration
With their home world secured and the war over, the Red Queen Gusilna ushered in a new age in Formian history. She saw potential in the stars, she knew that other worlds existed out there and that they must be colonized to ensure the survival of her species. She began an extensive public works program that excavated an entire continent on the home world, turning it into a massive sling shot, one capable of producing speeds needed for escape velocity. This structure became known as a Gusilna Gun by later Formian Queens.

By the thousands she birthed new queens and placed their larval eggs in storage, while their asteroid like ships were constructed, once the colony ship was built and ready to be fired it was filled with thousands of Formian Workers, Warriors, Taskmasters, and Myrmarchs, and the larval Queen. All would be put into stasis and only awaken once they reached a new world.

Age of Empire.
The Colonization project continued for hundreds of thousands of years, changing as time and technology advanced. Asteroid Colony Ships were eventually replaced with star ships, and colonization began in earnest. Soon hundreds of worlds were not only located but colonized in short order. This once again led to conflict between Queens, though this time on a galactic scale. Each Queen viewing herself as more important than any other, and in short order they once again began waging war on one another, this time for political standing among the other Queens.

This war ravaged thousands of worlds, and ended the lives of billions of Formians, until one Queen on the home world Ustizz dealt a decisive blow against her enemies and in the process convinced other Queens to put aside their agendas and work toward a common goal; peace.

When the war ended this Queen was named the first Empress of the Formians, from that moment on all Formians would bow before her, and no queen would ever be above her. As time marched on Empresses came and went, but the social order remained, and the Kingdom of the Red was born.

Return to Black
The Formian Queen Thyszer and her Colony floated through the depths of space, with no real destination to aim for. They would have been doomed to an eternal slumber, silently tumbling through space, had Desnali on their great march across the Fandal Galaxy not found them and awakened them out of curiosity.

The Desnali listened to Queen Thyszer’s plight and offered to seed her on a lush garden world in exchange for a permanent outpost on the planet and trade hub. Queen Thyszer agreed and was soon seeded on Hobulus.

Queen Thyszer wasted no time in establishing her new Colony, and in four short years with the advanced technology offered to her from the “Star People” she had colonized the entire planet and constructed several launch sites, and orbital space platforms.

Though Thyszer eventually died her people’s relationship with the Desnali didn’t. Her decedents and all future Queens upheld their alliance with the Desnali and integrated quickly into a galactic civilization. The Queens of their colony worlds forming a Parliament of the Black ruled over by an Empress of the Black.

War of the Kingdoms
It wasn’t long before the Red Empress found out about the Black Kingdom and began mobilizing an armada to once and for all end their kind. She amassed one of the largest ground forces the Fandal Galaxy has ever seen and certainly the largest fleet of troop transports, and began warping for Hobulus.

The Desnali and the Empress of the Black both began war preparations, with the Black Formians arming themselves with the newest and most advanced technologies the Desnali could afford them, soon the inferior numbers of the Black Formians were made more formidable with cybernetics and implants.

The war on Hobulus and in orbit were brutal, estimates count that sixteen billion Formians lost their lives in the war, before the Maja’Tak ended it.

The Maja’Tak were close galactic neighbors of the Kingdom of the Black and had been watching them for some time. They decided the Formains were no threat and allowed them to continue on as they were, but when the war broke out and the sheer savagery of the Formians was brought to their awareness, it was decided that a force as capable and powerful as the Formians could not be allowed to propagate on their doorstep. Eventually the Maja’Tak space navy came in on no Formian’s side and began to institute a forced peace and demilitarization. This forced peace lasted for thousands more years, with each Kingdom evolving in its own way, with the Black Formians embracing the future, their Queens augmenting themselves with technology, and the Red Formians pursuing a more “Purist” Mindset, only ever allowing technology to serve them never integrate or replace them.

Aboleth War
When the great Aboleth War came to the galaxy the Maja’Tak pleaded for both kingdoms to put aside their differences and join the fight. Both of the Kingdoms resentful for the Maja’Tak’s involvement in their previous war refused. That is until the great Golari Military found the Red Formian outpost of Tzzer. The inhabitants were rounded up and twisted into horrific monsters, which were then loosed upon other Formian worlds, as shock troops. Soon the Formian rallying cry became “Remember the Tzzer!”

Both Formian Kingdoms saw what had become of their sisters on Tzzer, they knew that if the Golari were ever able to capture one their Queens and force her to birth these monsters, that not even the prodigious birth rate of the Maja’Tak would be able to keep up with the new threat.

As a precaution the Formians of both nations sent their Queens and Empresses to the Maja’Tak for their safety, and joined the fighting. Few soldiers in the war on either side fought as hard or zealously as the Formians, each willing to die for her sisters and her Queen without hesitation or second thought, their lives meant less to them than the lives of their allies and sisters.

But even their zeal and their massive numbers were, in the end, of little use. The Golari were more than an army they were an extinction level event on a galactic scale, and there was little anyone could do about it.

Until the Maja’Tak’s secret weapon the Rin began infiltrating the Golari and dismantling the machine from the inside. But even with the help of the Rin it seemed as if it would be too little too late for the Fandal Forces, they gathered in the Kintin system to make their last stand with the rest of the Galaxy.

Then the unthinkable happened the Golari began turning on themselves and it seemed as though victory could be achieved. Invigorated with new hope the Formians fought ruthlessly, storming loyal Golari vessels fighting tooth and nail through every corridor and blockade, no casualty too great, no loss of life unacceptable to them, they would get the job done.

War of the Throne
During this time period the Formians were once again resettled on their worlds, but this time under the unyielding tyrannical rule of the Golari. No Queen was allowed to birth more than one thousand children in a year, under penalty of planetary destruction. Many Queens lost their lives, due to medical complications related to these orders. Their populations already thinned from the Aboleth War, the new birthing restrictions all but ensured that the Formians would pass into extinction.

Soon massive riots erupted and civil unrest became the norm across every Formian world, and with the Golari forces too busy fighting each other to follow through with their extermination threats the Formian Empresses gave the order to begin birthing once more.

By the time the Maja’Tak rose to power and ended the War of the Throne the Formians had recouped a large portion of their losses. And were in the process of throwing the Golari off their worlds, and rebuilding their infrastructure.

Galactic Council
When the Maja’Tak announced they would be creating a Galactic Council, a place where all the races could come together and interact peacefully and resolve problems together, the Formian Kingdoms jumped on the opportunity.

Soon Formian Myrmarchs began boarding ships and traveling to the newly created Galactic Council, eager to voice their Queen’s opinions, and gain greater amounts of territory and political standing for their Kingdoms as well.

The Formians made it no secret that they did not want the Golari to join the Galactic Council, but the Empresses were eventually convinced to yield and allow them entry. And once the Galactic stage settled and peace began to bloom across the galaxy the Formians largely retreated into their own Kingdoms rarely venturing beyond for any reason other than trade or Galactic Council affairs.